Artistic Expressions Have Worth On International Women's Day

03/08/06

More than 3,600 Swiss francs were raised by the sale of the artworks by the students from Geneva’s College du Leman and the International School Nations campus at an auction at IOM’s headquarters attended by invited guests, the students and their parents and IOM staff.

The money raised will be donated to a Geneva based non-governmental organization, Camarada, which provides free French classes to migrant and refugee women and children in order to help with their integration into Swiss life.

The students provided paintings, collages and drawings that depicted their understanding of what gender, migration and decision-making, this year’s theme of International Women’s Day, meant to them - with some rather interesting results.

The students were from different age groups ranging from eight years old to sixteen years.

“The event was a great success, not only because of the money raised for a good cause, but also because it was so much fun,” said Denise Glasscock, IOM’s Gender Officer. “There was a really positive spirit among the crowd, lot of laughter and it was great to see some of the paintings fetch more than 200 francs each.”